Babies cry between an hour and a half and three hours a day on average. It is their way of communicating and letting their parents or caregivers know that they need something. But it is not always easy for parents to interpret what is happening, why their baby is crying, and hearing them cry can trigger feelings of anxiety, depression, helplessness, anger and frustration, which negatively affects the emotional bond with them.
Hence, a team of researchers and pediatricians from the Neonatology service of the Hospital Clínic Barcelona and IDIBAPS, in collaboration with the health technology startup Zoundream AG, decided to carry out a study to classify each type of crying and attribute certain characteristics to it according to the acoustics. , electroencephalography (EEG) signals, cerebral regional oxygen saturation (NIRS), facial expressions and body movements, among other indicators, with the aim of creating a reliable tool for parents to better understand the baby and improve relationship between both.
"The main objective is to guarantee the adequate care and neurological development of the baby," the researchers said when announcing the results of the study.
The research, in which Oscar Garcia-Algar, head of the Neonatology service and researcher of the Fetal Perinatal Medicine group of the IDIBAPS, and Anna Lucia Paltrinieri, pediatrician of the same service, participated, included 38 healthy newborns without congenital anomalies or notable diseases. , selected from the Maternity Hospital at Clínic Barcelona.
Electroencephalography data, regional oxygen saturation in the brain, audios and videos of each newborn were collected while they cried spontaneously, which served to define different types of crying generated by different situations, such as hunger, sleep, restlessness, gas and stress. .
The main findings indicate that each type of crying is characterized by different acoustic, neurophysiological and behavioral patterns. For example, hunger crying is constant, rhythmic, short-lived, intense and loud, but not high-pitched, and may elicit a variety of facial expressions and body movements intended to attract the caregiver's attention.
On the other hand, distress crying has few pauses, is erratic and more acute, while gas crying is similar to the latter but hoarser due to the tension exerted on the vocal cords, explain the authors of the study.
Crying for sleep is long-lasting, with prolonged, monotonous cries that present a clear decadent melody, while crying to attract attention is very similar, although it seems more like a lament than a real cry, and its interpretation depends a lot on the context. in which it is presented.
This data collection, the researchers explain, in addition to having significant implications for the bond between the baby and its parents, can contribute to improving their medical care by being able to understand the first communicative attempt of newborns.
And they emphasize that this pioneering and multimodal study creates a precedent in the research of crying analysis and its conclusions will serve to deepen the interpretation of babies' first form of communication "and, above all, to highlight the clinical potential of analysis of crying as an objective and accessible tool to improve the relationship between parents and children and to guarantee the well-being of the family and the development of the newborn.
The data from the study have made it possible to create an algorithm that automatically interprets the reason for the baby's crying. Pediatrician Anna Lucia Paltrinieri assured in the presentation press conference that the objective of this tool is not to replace the criteria of parents, who are the ones who know their children best, but rather "what we want is to empower families more and help especially in the first weeks, when having a crying baby at home can be very stressful.
Paltrinieri has also pointed out that the next step will be to apply this research to premature babies and those at risk of pathologies in order to act preventively and improve the results of the treatments, according to ACN. "The final objective is to see if we can use crying as a vocal biomarker that helps us predict from the first weeks of life whether the child has a greater neurological risk," said the researcher.
